Looking to our future ……. in 1954

Now I am back with that favourite observation of the future, written by Thomas Hobbs in 1650, who wrote “No man can have in his mind a conception of the future for the future is not yet.  But of conceptions of the past, we make a future.”*

And when you look at these pictures from Adventures of the World, Mr. Hobbs is spot on.

In one sense projecting the present and past into the future is obvious, more so because we ask science to extend our knowledge and technology into the realm of what might be, on the assumption that we will just make better what we already have.

So, in 1954, James Fisher drew on atomic power stations helicopters high rise apartments and transport in the sky to offer up  a vision of what would be.

And because he wasn’t stepping too far ahead, much of what he presented is now part of how we live.

The book is part history, and part science fiction and aims to show that “Man learns to work hand in hand with Nature, respecting and husbanding her resources to ensure his own welfare and happiness”.

In retrospect, we might retreat from the optimism  underpinning that confident assertion in the face of Global warming, our continued inability to feed large sections of the world’s population or lift them from grinding poverty, poor medical facilities and basic schooling.

Added to which pursuit of a “fast buck” has done no favours to “Nature”.

But that said the book does offer up a fascinating glimpse of how we thought the world would be, along with the assumptions upon which that confident futuristic view was based.

Pictures; Adventure of the World, 1954


*Hobbs, Thomas, The Elements of Law, Natural and Politics, 1650
**Fisher, James, Adventure of the World, 1954

On Blackfriars Street in 1894

We are on Blackfriars Street sometime at the beginning of April 1894.

Now I can be pretty certain of that because our old friend Samuel L Coulthurst wrote the location on the picture and the dates on the adverts place it just before April 7.

It is that classic image most of us have of a northern city.

One of the women wears a shawl; another is in one of those long dresses with a white apron while the men all wear the distinctive hats of the period or the equally characteristic flat cap.

It is a period when the young still dressed like their elders and so in the centre is a youngster who looks just like a cut down version of the men around him.

And it is all in the detail, from the enamel jug held by one woman to the slightly dirty hands of one the men.

I would love to know what is going on, for while the woman in the shawl looks directly at Mr Coulthurst, the attention of the rest has been caught by something we cannot see.

The clue may be the half obscured man facing us who at pinch might be singing or addressing the crowd.

It may be a fancy on my part but there is just a hint that the woman with the shawl and jug looks a tad apprehensive, but I might be wrong.

The original notes accompanying the photograph may help but sadly I don’t have access to them.

They appear to have been quite detailed including a description, catalogue number and the photographer’s name.

And the image formed part of a wider collection which had been commissioned by the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society which under took the first photographic survey of Manchester and Salford between 1892-1901.

So our Blackfriars picture is one of these.

But even given the absence of those notes there is much that the photograph offers up.

On the wall there are countless adverts which take us back into Manchester and Salford of the 1890s.

Alderman Dickins who features on the Sale of Works ad for April 6 & 7 was a prominent Conservative politician on the city council who in 1894 was in his mid 50s and described himself as a cotton merchant.

Croxton Park Races was an annual event which drew large crowds.

They were held near the village of Waltham of the Wolds which is in Leicestershire and is another example of the degree to which Victorian past times had long since extended beyond local boundaries.

It appears to have begun in 1821 and lasted till 1914.*

That said I doubt that any of our crowd would have made that journey.
And for now I will leave them watching the event captured by Mr Coulthurst.

There is more here, like the location of the grand house at OLD TRAFFORD,   SOLD FOR AUCTION and what looks to be the announcement of an election.

But they will wait for another time.









Picture; Blackfriars Street, 1894, Samuel L Coulthurst, m 80496, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Croxton Races: pre 1881, Waltham on the Wold, http://local-history.org.uk/waltham/croxton-races-pre-1881/

Charlton House ........ the one I always find by accident

Now I found Charlton House by accident not long after we moved to Well Hall and I had taken myself off on “an adventure.”

And over half a century later I came across this picture of the Hall and a description written in 1847.

Both come from a wonderful book called The Land We Live In.*

And it just so happens it too was an accidental discovery.

I was looking for Vol 1 which has some fine pictures of Manchester in the 1840s by the artist C W Clennell.

That volume remains elusive but instead I did find the third volume which I have to say is equally fascinating.

Amongst the chapters which cover the West Country, the Midlands and Ireland there is a section on “the Baronial Halls of Kent.”

And there was an entry on Charlton.

“At the accession of James 1. the manor was the property of the crown.  

The needy train of courtiers who followed the monarch to the rich south were clamorous for provision, and James was nothing loath to supply the necessities of his loving countrymen. Charlton he assigned, the year after his accession to the Earl of Mar.  

The nobleman sold it in 1606 to one of his countrymen, Sir James Erskine for £2,000.  Sir James, in like manner, parted with his bargain the following year for £4,500 to Sir Adam Newton, another northern knight.”

All of which smacks of the sort of deal that might just happen today for a small one bed apartment in the area.

Location; Charlton

Pictures; Charlton House and frontispiece from The Land We Live In

*The Land We Live In A Pictorial Literary Sketch Book in the British Empire 1847 Vol 3
*Ibid, page 23

That unseen picture of Beech Road ……. playing on the Rec and heaps more

This is a picture postcard of the Rec which I haven’t seen before and comes courtesy of Bob Jones who posted it recently on social media.

The Rec, undated

It was taken when the recreation ground was still quite new, and I guess dates from sometime between 1896 and 1903.

Now this I know because the Rec was opened in 1896, while Wilton Road which runs along its western side was cut no later than 1903.

The Manchester Guardian was on hand to report the opening in the May of 1896, which was attended by Lord Egerton accompanied by a selection of civic worthies.

They had already presided over a similar ceremony in Withington, and with these two events done, the official party drove “past Chorlton green, the land of which has also been given by Lord Egerton and laid out by the Council [before] the chief visitors took leave of the party and drove to the Stretford station on their way to Knutsford”.*

Playing on the Rec, date unknown

All of which may have been distant history to the children playing on the apparatus, but for those of us of a certain age will be instantly recognizably as potential bone shakers, where the person on the one end made a sudden and swift movement resulting in his companion bouncing into the air and coming down with a thud.

The shelter, Claremount House and those seats

And for those who are devotees of sheds and shelters this one of the earliest images of our own place to sit when the rain came down or just while away the time away from parental observation.

What the postcard also reveals is that lamp post directly in front of the building and what looks to be a set of ascending seats.  Just what they were for is unclear, but perhaps were erected for an event.  

It is even possible that they were built for the opening ceremony on May 18th 1896, and if so we could be dealing with the aftermath, when the guests had gone leaving a group of children to to be photographed by the man with the camera.

That said the leaves on the trees seem to suggest a moment later in the year. 

Beyond are the rounded windows with their pointed tops of Claremont House and Heath Bank, which were numbers 5 and 7 High Lane.

I can’t be exactly sure when they were built but they show up on a map dating to 1881 and I can track them through the Rate books back to 1892 when number 7 was owned by a James and William Botham who were “Grey cloth agents”.**

Almost the identical spot, 2023 

Location; the Rec

Picture; Recreation Grounds, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, undated, courtesy of Bob Jones

*Public Recreation Grounds at Withington, Manchester Guardian, May 18th, 1896

**Grey goods “are loom state woven fabrics, or unprocessed knitted fabrics. Greige goods undergo many subsequent processes, for instance, dyeing, printing, bleaching, and finishing, prior to further converting to finished goods such as clothing, or other textile products. Greige goods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greige_goods

"Sellers of Sleep" .............

Angel Street, 1901

Sometimes a phrase captures your imagination, and so it is with "Sellers of Sleep", which is a French, term for the owners of those properties which offer up a bed and little else.

I came across the description on a Radio 4 programme about Marseilles, and it perfectly describes those places where the poor and destitute might pay for the chance to sleep under a roof for the night.

They are of course a part of history , and can be found in Ancient Rome, Medieval London and pretty much everywhere.

And it took me back to a story I had written earlier about 44 Angel Street as I wandered down the street in the company of Samuel L Coulthurst who took a series of pictures of the people and their homes including one rare shot of the inside of number 44.

And today I am back having spent my time crawling over the census return for the same street in 1901.

The pictures reveal a row of late 18th and early 19th century houses similar to those which were going up across the city in the boom years as Manchester quickly became “the shock city of the Industrial Revolution”*

Angel Street, May 1898

The south eastern side from what is now Rochdale Road up to St Michaels’s Fields had been built in 1794 and those we can see in the pictures were there by 1819**

What makes Coulthurst’s pictures all the remarkable is that having identified the houses it is possible to discover who was living in them just a few years later.


On Angel Street in 1898
Now I would love to be able to record who exactly was living at number 44 when in the May of 1897 Samuel took his pictures, but I can’t.

The best I can do is identify who was there on the night of March 31st 1901 when the census was taken.

There were thirty two of them all male ranging from William Paxton aged 22 from Wigan who described himself as a street hawker to Thomas Reed from Ireland who at 74 was still working as a labourer.

All  them earned their living from manual work or the slightly more precarious occupation of selling on the streets.

Outside 44 Angel Street, May, 1897

Most were single although a few were widowers and while the largest single group had been born here there were those from the rest of Lancashire, as well as Ireland Scotland and even London.

I try not to be sentimental but you cannot help feeling a degree of sadness that so many of these men well past middle age were living crammed together in a common lodging house with nothing but a few possessions and the knowledge that with old age, sickness or just bad luck the future might be the Workhouse.

History of course has been unkind to them and most will have few records to stand as witness to their lives and so during the course of the next few weeks I want to track some of them and discover what their lives had been like.

In the process I think we will uncover something of that shifting population at the bottom of the income pile and the extent to which they went from one overcrowded property to another.

Sadly the identities of those staring back at us are lost and so who they were and what happened to them cannot be revealed.

Patrick Corner

But that is not completely the case, because I think standing outside number 44 with his flat cap and parcel under his arm might just be Patrick Comer whose name appears above the door and who fourteen years later is still registered at the address on the street directory.

If this is him he seems to have had a varied life.  Born in Manchester sometime around 1850 he was variously a dyer, a joiner and in 1911 was both listed a step ladder maker and a clothes agent.

He never strayed far from Angel Street and can be found on Mount Street which runs into Angel Street and on Rochdale Road close by.

As for the others they are unknown and I doubt would still have been living at number 44 by 1901.

The very nature of these lodging houses meant that the residents were short term stay but we shall see.

Most of Angel Street also consisted of lodging houses and as I trawl the census return they reveal a rich cross section of those at the margins of late 19th century Manchester life.

Inside no. 44 Angel Street, 1897

And they point to number 44 being a tad unusual in that it was entirely male orientated.  The other lodging houses had more of a mix of men and women, married as well as single and some unmarried women with young children who defiantly refused to describe themselves as either married or widowed.

It will indeed be a fascinating exploration of this part of the city.

Now that should be the end but there is just one last discovery, for I have tracked Mr Samuel L Coulhurst.***

He was a book buyer from Salford, born in 1868 and living at number 4 Tootal Road Pendelton and in the fullness of time I think he also deserves a closer look.

Location, Angel Meadow, Manchester

Pictures; Angel Street, 1900, m85543 44 Angel Street, 1897, m08360, 44 Angel Street 1898, m00195, and Angel Street common lodging house, 1897, m08365, S.L.Coulthurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities, 1963

**The south east side of Angel Street are missing from Laurent’s map of Manchester in 1793 but are there the following year on Green’s map while the side photographed by Coulthurst show up on Johnson’s map of 1819.

 ***Angel Street, Manchester artist and photographers, Manchester housing conditions, Manchester in the 1900s, Rochdale Road, Samuel L Coulthurst

As others saw us ........... Eltham in 1858 according to the Melville & Co's Directory

Front cover of the Directory

“Eltham is a small ancient but pleasant town and suburb of London adjoing Lee, eight miles S.E.from London, in the lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, Blackheath hundred, union of Lewisham, West Kent. 

The population, with Mottingham, in 1851 was 2,437.  The church of St John is a plain edifice, but was considerably improved and enlarged in 1819.  The living is a discharged vicarage, in the diocess of London.  

There are six alms-houses, founded by Thomas Philpot in 1680, and Foster’s Almhouses.  There are two chapels-one for Independents, and the other for Wesleyans.

Mottingham is a hamlet, partly in the parish of Eltham church, and three miles N.W. from Bromley.
POST-OFFICE-James Lawrence, Postmaster.  Money Orders are granted and paid at this office.”

And in 1858 that was pretty much all you needed to know.

Eltham Lodge in 1909

The directory listed 65 names under Gentry, and all the familiar big houses are there.  So Mrs Wood was living at Eltham Lodge, James Vicat at Southwood House, Mrs Lucy Lambert at Eagle House and Alfred Bean Esq in Castle House.

But more interesting are those listed under Trades.  Here are the people who toiled for a living, getting their hands dirty busying themselves from dawn till dusk.

And there are the usual mix of trades ranging from blacksmith, carpenter and tailor to those selling everything from food to drugs running private schools and even a collector of taxes.

As ever a significant number of those engaged in meaningful activity were the beer sellers and publicans who amounted to 17% of the trades listed.  Of these quite a few ran beer shops as opposed to inns.  They owed their existence to the 1830 Beer Act which allowed anybody to brew and sell beer for a small charge.

Often these beer shops were no more than the front room of a house and many of them did not last long.

Some at least may have been a short term strategy lasting just long enough till an alternative means of income could be found.

I rather like Melville & Cos Directory for Eltham and I rather think I will return to it, looking in more detail at the people it listed, checking them off against the census returns for 1851 and 1861 and exploring where they lived.

Pictures; front cover of Melville & Cos Directory of Kent, 1855, and Eagle House, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

101 Beech Road ….. one shop ….. and a heap of stories …….

Now, when Ian Collier posted this picture on social media  of his family outside 101 Beech Road I knew there was a story.

101 Beech Road

Today the premises is Beech Road Pharmacy but in 1901 it was home to Mrs Elizabeth Clayton and her five children. 

Mrs. Clayton described herself as a widow, and her children were variously employed as a “dressmaker”, “Blouse machinist”, and fishmongers.

And it is the 25 year old George Clayton who may well be the tall young man staring back at us with what may be his brother Arthur.

A decade later the census returns record only George, his brother William and sister Ethel in the property, with George describing himself as “Fishmonger” along with William who was a “Fishmonger, Salesman” and Ethel who had given up her job as “Blouse machinist” in return for running the family home.

Fruit, veg and Mr. Clayton

Ian tells me that “the shop was owned by George Clayton, my grandmother's second husband as her first husband, my grandfather was tragically killed by fire shortly after the birth of my father. 

The photo shows my great-grandmother, grandmother and father as a child. I am uncertain how long they stayed in Chorlton as they moved to Bacup after George Clayton died”.

The census record show that by 1921 no. 101 was occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Degman.  He was a hairdresser but gave his work address as 13 Lever Street in town and there is no hint as to who or what the shop was selling.

But in 1929 an Arthur Collier is listed as a greengrocer at the address.

That said Arthur Clayton now aged 44 had own green grocers at 119 Beech Road, which was still trading as such but under a different name thirty years later, and indeed had morphed into a wholesale food emporium in 1979.

Fresh To Day

Leaving aside the story of the Clayton family which I am sure Ian will be able to help piece together I am intrigued by the picture.

I am fairly convinced its dates from after 1903, because in that year a William Henry Bratby is listed as a Cycle agent, next door at 103, but six years later the shop is a drapery run by Mrs. Rosa Wagstaff and there does appear to be clothes in the window of the neighbouring  shop.

All of which just leaves me to reflect on the detail in the picture, from the sign advertising a range of fish, "Fresh Today" to the heap of fruit, veg and more fish on display both inside and outside the shop.

Location; Beech Road

119 Beech Road, 1979

Pictures, 101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921, courtesy of Ian Collier, and 119 Beech Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson